Category Archives: Comic Book Stuff

Who Is The Best Batman Villain?*

So, I've had something I've been wondering for a while now and I thought I might as well put the question to the community. You see, when it comes to discussing the best Batman villain, there's always one single answer. Joker. And that answer is probably right. He's the guy who's been around the longest, is the most recognisable and has done the most to hurt the Dark Knight out of any of his numerous enemies. But just saying Joker is the best does hurt the discussion of what is The greatest rogues gallery in any medium (comics, film, TV, video games, books you name it). So what I want to do is pose the question, who is the best Batman villain (not including Joker)? Think of it as we're deciding the number 2 spot as it were. I've put together a fairly comprehensive list of the Dark Knight's greatest enemies and I want you guys to tell me who is best.

You can add your own entries, but I'm not accepting any villains who are famous for fighting Batman but were originally villains for other characters (e.g. Soloman Grundy, who was originally a Green Lantern villain, or Deathstroke, who started out as a Teen Titans villain and is generally more of a Justice League adversary more than anything). You can vote for your top 10 once a day over the next week.

[polldaddy poll="9803472"]

Why is Lex Luthor Superman’s Antithesis?

While discussing the "Wonder Woman" movie this weekend (it's awesome, go see it if you haven't already!), I started thinking about how DC organizes its heroes and villains into duos of opposites.

So Batman, the champion of justice, is opposed by The Joker, the champion of random meaninglessness. There can be no justice in a world where fate is usurped by chaos.

Wonder Woman, the champion of peace and all that is noble in humanity, is opposed by Ares, the god of war who believes all humans are evil and worthless.

Which brings me to Superman, and for the life of me I can't quite put my finger on why Lex Luthor is his opposite.

So I'm asking you -- what's your best explanation for why Lex is Superman's antithesis?

The King’s Throne

What you see here is the place where virtually the entire Marvel Universe sprang forth from the brush and mind of Jack "King" Kirby:

I love this photo, and I want to tell you why.

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Kaldath’s Corner: Batgirl Movie Announced!

Yesterday the news dropped on twitter and various comic book related youtube channels, that Direct Joss Whedon will be writing, producing and directing a new standalone Batgirl Movie!! Apparently things are still in the negotiation phase and no contracts have been signed yet but here hoping it all goes through!

You can Read the Story on Variety.com HERE

 

What Were They Thinking?: Marvel’s Rebirth Problem

HEATH AND SAFETY WARNING: THIS WEEKS WWTT CONTAINS "ART" BY ROB LIEFELD. PLEASE TAKE ALL NESSESCARY HEALTH AND SAFETY PRECAUTIONS BEFORE READING. THANK YOU.

You know, doing a reboot isn't always a bad thing. DC successfully did it back in the 50's, taking the names of established characters from the 40's and changing their origins and personalities to create new characters and boom, Silver Age of comics. I mean, ok, they have now officially over-egged that omelette after the 18 trillionth time they've rebooted their universe, but still the original idea of taking the name "The Flash" and having it be a guy called Barry Allen rather than Jay Garrick was possibly the best in comic book history, maybe after the idea of putting Superman in bright red underwear over a blue one-piece. But, that's DC, what about Marvel. They aren't exactly known for their reboots are they. Whilst DC was creating all new characters from old ones, Marvel just slotted the new characters in alongside the old. So, they never needed to do a big reboot right? Yes, that's true, but this is What Were They Thinking (the place where we look at the stupidest most ill-advised things in all of comic book history), so of course, they did it anyway and what did we get? We got this...

Rob Liefeld cannot art.

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The List: Top 10 Best X-Men Team Members

So, the X-Men. Charles Xavier's School For Higher Learning and it's team of Uncanny mutants has seen a fair few members since its inception in the early 60's (near 100 at last count and that's if you don't include honorary members or members of sub-/ splinter teams that never made it to the main team), but that's only fair considering that to qualify you only have to be born a mutant, which skips around the whole origin story thing. Of course, as with any series with a large cast of characters there are some members that are good, some that are bad and then there's Beak. But today, we're only focusing on the good ones, specifically the 10 X-Men that you voted as the top 10 Best in the team's history.

Honourable Mentions: Beast (Dr. Hank McCoy), Psylocke (Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock), Iceman (Bobby Drake)

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What Were They Thinking- The Christmas Special: GLX-Mas

Usually here on What Were They Thinking we look at the stupidest, most ill-advised things ever in the history of the comics industry. However, as today is the Christmas Special, we're going to change things up a bit. We're still going to look at something completely mental, something that still fulfils our quota of strange and stupid and full of What The...? moments, but something that cannot and should not ever be described as something bad. Ladies, Gentlemen and assorted alien life-forms, I present to you 2005's GLX-Mas featuring the Great Lakes Avengers.

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The List: Top 10 Storylines From Comics I’d Like To See In Movies

As the superhero film genre grows larger and larger, with more films being put out each year, more characters being introduced to set up new films, the pressure to come up with new, interesting storylines increases. However, there is one good thing about working with comic book characters. They already have great stories from their original medium. Since the comic book movie boom really started back in 2000 we've seen adaptations of Spider-Man No More, Wolverine's Origins, The Galactus Saga, Knightfall, Extremis, Days Of Future Past, Civil War, The Age Of Apocalypse and The Death of Superman, all to varying degrees of success. But there are still classics from Marvel and DC's long histories that, If Done Right (Warner Bros. and Disney, but mostly Warner Bros.!), could make for excellent movies and perfect additions to their cinematic universes. So here are my 10 storylines I'd like to see make it from the comics to the big screen (in no particular order)

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What Were They Thinking: Marvel’s Image problem

So, here on what were they thinking we usually look at the worst, most ill-advised things to happen in the history of the comics industry. However, since it is the season to be jolly (tralalalala lalalala), today we're going to take a look at something that wasn't actually so bad, in fact you could even say it was a really good thing for all involved, but somehow ended up with what can only be described as Marvel in the 90's. So strap yourselves in Ladies, Gentlemen and extra-dimensional beings because today we are talking about a two year period in Marvel's history and how it led to the creation of Image Comics

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Trailers of the Week Vol. 2

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Trailers, trailers everywhere! Another week goes by and I have double the number to talk about than I did last time. Some will be pretty fast to discuss, at least. This time we’re also just going in the order that I wrote them down, again no top to bottom list. As we have so much to go over, let’s just jump right in and get to it!

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